A Moment of Clarity
by VoyeurTheNinja
Summary: The day after Aiko had stayed in his place, Kouta spends his time at school pondering about his feelings for his tease of a schoolmate. With questions from his friends only making his mind spin, the silent pervert finally tries to deal with how he felt about Aiko.


_**A/N: This will be the last part of my 3-parter story for Baka to Test. Starting with Encounter Under the Rain, to A Night at Voyeur's Place, this will be the conclusion to their story. It's highly recommended that you read those first, to get more enjoyment out of this one, as Kouta goes through steps of character of development between each.**_

* * *

The day after Aiko had come over to Kouta's place, the silent voyeur now sat in his classroom with crossed arms, folded legs and a deep frown. Black rings surrounded his half-open eyes as Kouta did his best from collapsing on his cardboard table and falling asleep. Taking care of Aiko all night after she got a cold didn't do any favors for his health, and one quick glance at him would make one think he was a zombie. Or a pervert. Or a zombie pervert.

Kouta had lost track of how all this even managed to happen. There was that meeting with Aiko near Akihisa's place two days ago, then her staying over at his place the night after that, it was as if God was playing a little game of chance with him. Kouta let out a yawn that escaped his mouth too fast for his hand to cover up and tried to shake the sleepiness out of his head. It took him a while to realize that in the midst of his half-asleep pondering, class had finished and Akihisa was coming over to him. He still looked he was recovering from his sickness.

Clutching his stomach slightly, Akihisa waved at him, his volume of speech still at its usual height to the tired pervert's annoyance, "Hey Voyeur!" he saw the look Kouta was giving him, too daft to understand that his presence wasn't appreciated, "Wow, you look tired. Anyway, mind if I stay at your place for a bit?" he clasped his hands together, suddenly begging, "Please! My house's power went out and I can't pay the bill-"

"No."

"Aw, come on!"

The rest of his whining went in from one ear and out the other as Akihisa continued to beg. Tired plagued with thoughts of Aiko and just plain not in the mood, Kouta just gave him a reason so that he would shut up and go away, "Aiko's staying at my place. You can't come over," then, he wished he picked his words a lot more carefully, as Akihisa stared at him in surprise.

"Eh, Kudou's staying over at your place? Why- Wait, 'Aiko'?" he rubbed his chin, staring at Kouta with a raised brow and a smirk, "Don't tell me you two already did-" a sudden death glare from the silent pervert, added with the black rings under his eyes, made Akihisa shut up immediately. His death glare was almost on par with Kirishima's if not for the lack of a stun gun, "Sorry."

Sighing and rubbing his temples, Kouta proceeded to explain the situation and what had happened over the past few days. Excluding the parts he did not need to know, Akihisa nodded constantly as he listened to the entire story, "So that's what's going on. Huh. I thought something more exciting had happened," he sounded disappointed, making Kouta wish that Minami would come over and give him a German Suplex. His next words then made Kouta freeze, "So, Voyeur, tell me: do you like Kudou?" he was nonchalant when he asked, making Kouta's cheeks turn a dark shade of red.

He stumbled on his words, unable to form a coherent reply at all while Akihisa waited for his answer with a cheeky smile. Fortunately, their class teacher came, sliding the doors open and yelling at the students that class was starting. Kouta had never felt happier to see him ever since that battle with Class B, or was it C?

* * *

After class and the arrival of break time, Kouta retreated to the rooftop to eat his lunch in peace and avoid everyone else. Poking at his beef and rice absent-mindedly with his chopstick, he picked up a cluster of rice and was about to take a bite when he suddenly heard the door behind slam open. Yuuko, Hideyoshi's twin sister, stood at the doorway with her hands on her hips and a crossed look on her face. She looked like she had been hunting for him around the school, judging from her panting and sweating, "You!"

Kouta looked away and shoved the rice into his mouth, ignoring the girl to look at the cloudy skies above.

"Hey! Don't just ignore me!" she stomped over to him, "I've been looking for you!"

Kouta wished everyone today would just ignore him or leave him alone like every other day in school. It was as if he suddenly became very popular, "What do you want?"

Crossing her arms, Yuuko tried to calm down, questioning him while angry would just make things problematic, "Where's Aiko?" that question made him visibly freeze, as Yuuko continued, "I know she specifically went to your place, even when I told her she could have stayed at mine instead. So, tell me. Where is she?" she glared at the boy's back, while he just stared at the granite at his feet in thought.

Aiko said that Yuuko couldn't give her a place to stay at last night. Why would she lie? It couldn't have been because she wanted to specifically stay at his place, right? It wouldn't have made much sense either if Yuuko had lived closer to her. Hiding his face in the open palm of his hand, Kouta sighed and answered without looking back at Yuuko, "She's staying at my place. She got sick. So, I'm taking care of her. That's all."

He could feel her eyes drill into his back. That feeling didn't go away, even when he heard her footsteps as she walked away, "Fine. I don't trust you, but Aiko does; you better take care of her," and with that sentence alone, Kouta suddenly felt a cold shiver run up his spine as he heard the door close.

* * *

'You better take care of her'

These words ran through his head non-stop, spinning in his mind like a merry-go-round set to maximum speed.

Spinning, as he sat on a chair place next to the bed Aiko sat in. Looking better than she did last night, Aiko slowly drank the small cup of warm milk in one hand while swallowing some medicine, an empty bowl of porridge in the other. Kouta had kept quiet the entire time, the sight of Aiko recovering fast a relieving sight for his tired and heavy eyes. Rocking in his chair in an attempt to stay awake, he saw the packed-up bags at the foot of the bed and asked, "You're leaving today?"

Handing him the empty cup and bowl, Aiko wiped the corners of her mouth with a tissue, "Yeah. My parents called me to come back. They patched things up, and they wanna' seem me soon," she then held his hand, the boy fidgeting for a moment, "Thanks, for letting me stay over for the night. And for me taking care of me, too. Looks like you're not a 100% pervert after all," she giggled, witty as always, he thought.

Kouta turned away, unable to retract his hand from her grip, "N-No problem."

Now outside in his living room, Kouta waited on the couch as she got dressed in his room. Pressing his fingertips together, Kouta heard the door open and looked over his shoulder to see Aiko all dressed up in the clothes she came with last night. He had forgotten that he also did her laundry before school this morning, so her clothes were clean and fresh. Bags in hand, Kouta silently guided her to the front door and opened it.

At the doorstep, Aiko put on her shoes, tying the laces together as Kouta stood behind her, fidgeting. She seems to have sensed his uneasiness and asked, "Something wrong?" she stood up and turned to him. Looking in her eyes suddenly became very hard for him to do, as he looked away and thought of the question Akihisa asked him. How **did** he feel about her? They didn't really do much but constantly tease each other and outwit each other for the sake of it. There was that time where they went on a field trip with Akihisa's sister for the summer, then all those moments where the gang had to try out the new summoning field, only for chaos to erupt. Just how did he see her?

He only just realized that he had been silent for 5 straight minutes now. Opening his mouth to speak, Kouta lifted his hand from his sides, but stopped and instead shook his head, "It's nothing."

Kouta couldn't read her expression, but Aiko merely smiled and nodded, "Alright. Goodbye... Kouta. See you at school tomorrow."

Watching as she went of, he closed the door, locking it and making sure it was tightened before repeatedly ramming his forehead on the hard wood until his forehead turned sore. It felt almost cathartic, for an idiot like him. Kouta slumped down against the wall and sat on the floor, sighing. Bringing his legs to his chest, Kouta looked at the wooden ceiling with dull eyes. For minutes he stared, thinking how much he just screwed up just now, until the sound of thunder snapped him out of it.

Looking out the window, he saw a bunch of dark clouds in the sky. Hesitantly, he grabbed a nearby umbrella, and unlocked the door. He had no control over his motions as he suddenly ran out of his house.

* * *

As a thunderstorm out of all things started to pour down on the streets of the city while she was on her way back home, Aiko sat underneath a bus stop with her bags at her feet. Even if she tried running, her place was still far from where she was, and Aiko didn't want to get a cold after having just recovered from one. She could try and call her parents, but he phone had died out a few minutes ago after her stay.

The girl sighed and brought her legs to her chest, watching as the rain poured around her while thunder rumbled in the skies, streaks of lighting crackling like bolts of power thrown by an angry god. It didn't look like it was going to end soon either.

Aiko then heard some foggy footsteps from her left and looked up to see Kouta standing outside the shelter of the bus stop with an umbrella in hand. A sight for sore eyes, indeed, as he stepped under the roof and closed his umbrella. He sat next to her, setting his umbrella between them. His cheeks a shade of red, he quietly muttered, "Use this."

A smile came to her lips as Aiko brought a hand to her warm chest.

Hearing no reply from Aiko, Kouta looked at her, only to be taken aback as she brought her lips to his. Eyes wide, his hand at his side faltered, until it lifted itself once more and held Aiko's. Hearing the rain pour all around them, his mind drifted away as Kouta felt the moment take him away, the only coherent thought in his mind being that he definitely loved her. A short moment of clarity, during a small encounter under the rain, after a night at his place.


End file.
